Case Study

Out of Focus

Carbon teamed with Golin to design, direct, and produce a fully cgi-animated cinema-release campaign for optics company Essilor, aiming to create a meaningful and emotional piece encouraging parents to recognize the signs of myopia in children. Despite a limited schedule we focused squarely on the benchmark for character-driven emotional cgi storytelling, Pixar’s famously eye-misting Up, and for character styling we looked at modern classics, Despicable Me and Inside Out.

Carbon

Creative DirectorLiam Chapple

ProducerDerek Goldsmith

ProducerBeth Skopp

DesignFelipe Hansen

DesignSam Ballardini

DesignTom Macdougall

DesignSteve Toccaceli

CG LeadTim Little

CGBen Girdwood

CGTabia McCarty

CGTodd Kumpf

CGQuin Barclay

CGSam Gierasimczuk

CGJosh Merck

CGMatt Parent

CGMatt Sackley

CGMike Marsek

NukeDaniel Pernikoff

NukeDaniel Noren

NukeAdam Thompson

ColorJulien Biard

Agency

AgencyGolin

Creative DirectorZach Schmitz

Copywriting (ACD)Drake Paul

Sound

Sound DesignJohn Ferreira

Music CompanyGenuine Music

Carbon CD Liam Chapple was keen to get stuck into such a creative concept: ‘This is exactly the kind of creative brief we hope to receive because we love to be involved from the inception of the story and early concept development and storyboarding, all the way through animatics, edit, and look development to the final image and sound design. The storytelling element of the film gave us the opportunity to push the research stage, exploring the backstories of the film’s protagonist Mia along with the extended cast, expanding on character development both visually and from a personality standpoint, which in turn gives motives for the action.

Initial Character Design

2D Character Dev

3D Character Dev

Given the freedom to explore every aspect of character and environment design, we had to find unique and efficient ways to quickly translate them into a CG world. A large team of artists, across Carbon’s Chicago and New York studios, worked within Carbon’s proprietary pipeline to achieve everything from character modeling to complex season-driven dynamics in-house. Creative Director Liam Chapple saw the value in dynamic hair systems, so we employed the Ornatirix plugin and Vray for Maya for styling and simulations, and we added richness and interest to the exteriors by populating our parks and lawns with fully-animated trees using SpeedTree and Forest Pack, and falling leaves using ncloth.

Dynamic Hair

Initial Environment

3D Environment Look Dev

The final compositing touches and beauty work were added by our Nuke team, and color grade was set by the talented hands of our Chicago colorist, Julien Biard.

Zach Schmitz at Golin expressed the symbiotic partnership we shared; “From the day we first talked to Carbon, their entire team embraced our vision and worked tirelessly not only to bring this film to life, but to make it so much more than even we expected. Start to finish, the characters and animation simply got better and more beautiful by the day. What they ultimately delivered is a powerful 60 seconds that will hopefully help make a difference.”